I was reading the Winnipeg Sun today, and was pleased to find that I was not the only one these days who is rather unimpressed with the recent displays of American justice. Two glaring cases come to mind immediately, those of Paris Hilton, and Scooter Libby. One was given a free ride by his President, and the other was given a weak sentence, attempted to get away with 4 days served, and then finally served a shortened sentence, due to ‘good behavior’, which came to be some 20 days, for a crime that many people believe offenders should spend years in prison for even on first offences.
Scooter Libby decided to leak the name of a CIA operative whose husband pissed off the Bush administration, and was sentenced to 30 months in jail for his part. Within a few hours of Libby being refused freedom by an appeal court while he waited for his appeal to be heard, the US President, who swore he would punish those responsible, commuted Libby’s sentence, essentially freeing the one person who has so far been held responsible for this leak, which could easily have caused a serious risk to the US national security. This is the same President who was the leader of the country when the events of September 11 occurred. Glad he sees the security of the country he is burdened with the task of protecting as an important thing. I wonder whether Bush would have been so eager to help his secrets to be kept if Libby had exposed more vitally secret information?
The next… shining example of the American justice system is Paris Hilton, whose crime was one which could easily have cost another life, of many other lives, and while her supporters tried to get her off with 4 days served, a judge forced her to serve her sentence with time off for good behavior. The truly ironic thing? As weak as Hilton's punishment was, it was still more than Bush felt his friend should have to serve for his lapse in national security. This is the system of justice that Dubya says should be implemented(read forced) around the world? Dubya, a dictator who was horribly lenient with his friends, sent his army to take out a pathetic dictator who was brutally violent to his people. Justice? Not in either country.
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